Street Arts, new festival for La Mercè 2010, by Barcelona Checkin Apartments
Art in the street and Senegalese music in the largest festival of Barcelona
BARCELONA, SPAIN, August 29, 2010
A new feature this year is the inauguration, as part of the festivities of La Mercè, of a new festival. The name of this new festival is "Mercè Street Arts' (MAC - "Mercè Arts de Carrer"), which aims to give space to artists who see their shows on the street. Dance, theater, mime, circus and traveling actions constitute a generous and eclectic offer, which guarantees the ancestral pleasure of enjoying art in public spaces, all of this in the suggestive surroundings of the Festival of Barcelona, on 23, 24 , 25 and 26 September. Attendees can see Barcelona Checkin _a href="http://www.barcelonacheckin.com/en/n/apartment_barcelona.php"_ holiday Apartments Barcelona_/a_.To the Mercè Street Arts we must add the BAM Festival (Barcelona Musical Action), which this year celebrates its eighteenth birthday. The musical groups taking part in this festival are Goldfrapp, the Scots Belle & Sebastian and Ok Go, an American alternative rock group. But if anything the BAM is characterized by the presence of local groups. Two of the groups that will be seen there are Els Amics de les Arts and Maika Makovski.
Also, with the intention to promote the music made in the city, La Mercè Festival has reserved a space on the schedules for the tribute to the musician Gato Perez, who this year marks the twentieth anniversary of his death. The musical montage is named '20xGato' and will be led by Barcelona's rumba group Sabor de Gracia.
Apart from the first "Street Arts Festival", the novelty of this year is the presence of Senegalese music and culture. This is because Dakar is the city's guest this year's festivals. For the first time an African metropolis will be able to make Barcelona its window to the world. Dakar, Africa's cultural capital, will become apparent with the concerts of the rapper Awadi and the singer Njaaya, and Tenane contemporary dance, but there will also be more original proposals, as the spectacle of percussion by Doudou N'Diaye.
The opening speech of the Mercè festival will be read in 2010 by the poet and architect Joan Margarit. The National Prize for Literature and author of collections of poems such as "Barcelona amor final" (Barcelona final love) will be on the balcony of the City Hall on September 23 at 19:00. About a month after the conclusion of La Mercè a new collection of poems will hit the shelves, "No era lluny ni difícil" (It was not far nor difficult).
The poster for this year has a non too elaborate design, is austere, holds concepts closely linked to the current economic situation. It is a design poster made with little resources, conceptualized by the artist Claret Serrahima and developed by some 31 contributors, each of which has designed one of the letters in the word 'Mercè'. Some of the personalities that have shaped the design of the poster are the magician Mag Lari or Chano Dominguez.
More information on the web http://www.bcn.cat/merce/es/index.shtml